Report on the Regional Summit Meeting on Rwanda and Burundi

Readout and report of the regional summit meeting on Rwanda and Burundi that took place on April 6, 1994 - the same day President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi died in a plane crash that set off the Rwandan genocide.

The summit involved President Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania; President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Vice President George Saitoti of Kenya.

"President Museveni then asked what could be done in these circumstances. He posed the question as to whether the people of Burundi and Rwanda thought of themselves as Hutus and Tutsis first or Rwandese and Burundi or vice-versa. He wondered if one thought of onesself as a Rwandese first how one could go to kill another Rwandese and his children. In President Museveni's view, the question of identity then arose and related to identity was the issue of Unity. In the case of Burundi and Rwanda, President Museveni did not believe national unity had been achieved in the two countries."